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The spell Liquefy states that:

Items with hit point damage or the broken condition regain 5 hit points/caster level

It also states earlier:

If the item has magical or alchemical properties, they become inert for the duration of the spell.

I inferred from these two lines that the spell can be used to repair hit point damage on a magical item. However, the Broken condition says:

If the item is magical, it can only be repaired with a mending or make whole spell cast by a character with a caster level equal to or higher than the item's.

These two pages do not completely agree with each other: one specifies a caster level requirement (and lists two specific spells) while the other does not. This leads me to three possible conclusions:

  • Liquefy is more specific than the Broken condition, and it ignores the caster level requirement imposed on Mending and Make Whole
  • Liquefy obeys the same caster level requirement as the two other spells
  • Liquefy cannot be used to repair broken magic items, because it is not listed in the Broken description

I think the third option is unlikely to be the answer, but it is still a possibility so I included it.

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Liquefy is more specific than broken, and explicitly states that it works on magical items. Further, Liquefy explicitly states that it "has no effect on artifacts, constructs, or intelligent magic items", which gives further credence to it working to repair magic items.

Since it doesn't mention a caster level, Liquefy would ignore Broken's normal caster level requirements (which already only apply to Mending and Make Whole).

So, anyone capable of casting Liquefy, or using a magic item which replicates its effects (eg., a scroll), can use it to repair any non-intelligent, non-artifact, non-construct magic item.

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No, Liquefy cannot repair Broken Magic Items.

Liquefy can allow:

Items with hit point damage or the broken condition [to] regain 5 hit points/caster level if drained into a bottle in this way.

But, the Broken condition states that Magic Items can only be fixed by a

mending or make whole spell cast by a character with a caster level equal to or higher than the item's.

This seems to imply that Liquefy can have several results:

A non-magical item, reduced to any number of hit points more than 0: Liquefy restores 5 HP/caster level

A magic item, reduced to more than half its hitpoints: Liquefy restores 5 HP/caster level

A magic item, reduced to less than half its hitpoints: Liquefy has no effect, as it cannot fix a broken magic item.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "If the item has magical or alchemical properties, they become inert for the duration of the [liquefy] spell," so shouldn't the liquefy spell treat an affected magic items as a mundane item, repairing it no matter how damaged since, while the spell continues, the item's essentially nonmagical? \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Jan 20, 2017 at 1:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan No, because the item is still magical for the duration, simply inert. If the magic was removed completely for the duration of the spell, there's no reason to think that a temporary spell like greater magic weapon would remain after Liquefication. \$\endgroup\$
    – Weaveworker89
    Jan 20, 2017 at 3:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ What's inert mean here then? Simply unusable? (Curious, I checked a couple of other spells like arcane eye, clone, and stone to flesh, but all seem to mean different things by inert.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Jan 20, 2017 at 8:10

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